[Closed] Strathpuffer 2010 and all this snow

It'll be an epic event as per usual.

I know that Goan, but a long time since we have had snow like this, With most of the trails in Scotland being un-doable due to all the snow wasn't going to make it possible. There are epic rides and there is just plain stupidity if there is c. 20 inches of snow like I experienced in Aviemore last night (I know that is higher that strathpeffer)

A few hundred wheel ruts will make short work of that though. Difficulty would come from people trying to get parked.

Hmm never thought of that!! And I'm supposed to be taking a caravan.

Xan - Member
...and there is just plain stupidity if there is c. 20 inches of snow...

Probably be sopping wet sleet by then anyway. Haven't seen the Xmas/New Year weather continue to mid January yet for the 'Puffer, and it will still be plain stupidity.

endomorph at the ready ;D - 26 inch wheels in my rig with 2.8 tires will make a nice half fat bike 😀

A race was cancelled down south in Feb due to the car park being inaccessible due to ice.

The snow on the trails wasn't the problem - it was the safety of people getting into the venue.

GB

george - last time i did the puffer EVERY vehicle was towed into the field by a tractor - the sign on tent was blown down into a heap. and the course was a sheet of glass

will have to be something special to stop it

I rode round parts of the puffer route yesterday. You can ride in the tracks on the firetracks, but underneath the snow it is solid ice. Will take an age to thaw completely. The singletrack is ridable in areas.

A few pics from yesterday

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is it bad that i ride this track Every day and i dont recognise where some of those pic are...?

anyway, we all got our Ice tyres packed? Full mud tyres packed? (best thing in these conditions is a set of medusas...)
full wardrobe packed? extra warm sleeping bag? ski suit for between laps?

the list goes on...
il be starting a puffer conditions and weather predictions thread when metguess start forecasting that weekend =) this is gonna be fun.

I have snow spike tyres, narrow mud tyres, ordinary trail tyres and as I am forever the optimist I have some fast rolling tyres for the dry 🙂

Doesn't it look great is the photos though?

I did the Puffer last year and feel I got off quite lightly, I was a spectator the year before, and that ice was mad.

Good luck to anyone doing it this time.

Innes

och we'll be fine, maybe have a STW get together at 3 in the morning?

Looking forward to it 😆

Aye - remember to grease up your barse this time. Wouldn't want you to get red raw again and need me to go out and do your lap...

between laps ? i have a down jacket and a down vest ..... if its snow like that i intend to wear both at once for the push round .... rode in similar conditions yesterday it would loose its appeal 6 hours in i think ....

yea, conditions will be completely different by then though, early forecasts are for a hot spell soon (4 degrees!!!) and then the week of the puffer VERY COLD!

ICE ICE BABY!!!

but we all know the weather forecast will be wrong. so pack suncream.

That'll make things even more interesting! This is our first 'puffer.
I've not managed to get out on my bike for the last 2 months! The wife's starting to make noises about not being too keen and one of the other team members has previous for midnight hour call offs at the best of times!
Suffice to say we're not aiming for a win 😀
What's the script with the night before? The email say's there's a B&B. We're tenting it (camper fell through 🙁 )are we as well in the B&B or would we miss out on most of the social side?

Cheers

Paul.

my m8 owns a B&B in strath, could check if its free? they are bike friendly (their son races)

the social side comes from camping, and talking to people during the event... and this planned STW Pasta party.....

Cullen-bay, the pics are the fire road climb up from the Torachilty car park in Contin, and a pic of the river walk descent back down to the car park.

Going for a spin round the full Puffer route tomorrow with the dogs.

what time, could meet up? i got the firetrack ones, but i didnt realise it was the river walk,
il be doing 2-3 laps tomorrow, i havent been out on the bike for a couple of days so im going to try and make up for lost training...

P.s those tyre tracks were made by the logging trucks that are currently running up and down the firetracks, for people that werent aware....

EDIT: chipbutty, i probably know you if you are a regular in squarewheels. (im the saturday boy) Bert and dougie's mate?

XAN - it's going to be immense don't worry

As long as we've got the marquee, space heater, tent, boarding garb it'll be toastie! You want to try CV on Sunday 3rd?

GO SEXFACTOR (the rejects)!!!

Oh aye and I've just about sorted the banner - nae hoodies this year though - due to the recession an all.

Cullen bay, thats me, Berts pal Mikey.

Only just seen your post, sorry I missed you. How'd you get on today?

How will it be for midges?

My first time and I'm crapping myself, but I cant pull out as my mates are going to kidnapp me if I try to. I hate the cold, I dont do ice and midges are wee buggers!!!!!

There will be pure hunners of midgies. Only they'll be highland winter sabre toothed fighting midgies and they're proper bastards

I can't see it being called off, the worse the weather the better the race 🙂

Only thing I'm worried about is actually getting there - driving across the highlands could be *interesting*

I'm more worried about trying to stand up in the car park without the bambi style dissmount

driving conditions right now are fine, no midges-its winter, doubt it will be called off, and chipbutty- are you the guy we raced at Ten more at moray? or was that a different Mike? did you come out on a shop ride in the summer? i think it was you....

anyway, looks set to be just as exciting this year. has to be said im hoping for sheet ice, sorry guys =)

Thats me Cullen-bay. The team that were beaten by in the senior quads by the juniors 😉

I remember those juniors, they were like little whippets whereas I was more St Bernard 😕

I have to admit, winning that race made us feel soo good it was unreal, and we got another piece of furniture for the shop 🙂

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todays walk....

The course was stunning today. Brilliant. 4 hour lap 🙂

1st puffer this year and looking forward to it, might even bring different tyres from my usual Nobby Nics after looking at those pics 8)

dont worry about the winter midges. they shouldnt be too bad.

Its the snow badger after sunset you have to be aware of.dont turn yer back on them and you should be fine.

if the snow hasn't melted before the puffer then were taking shovels, Quads and a JCB up to clear it. As Goan said, the only worry is car parking...

and another update: in the last two days another 4 or 5 inches has fallen up on the course... this is bad, peoples.

cullenbay - you will just have to keep on doing laps for us to flatten it all down. Please 🙂

Metcheck changed recently to show a thaw from tues12th. That probably means a course of wet glass!

woohoo! 4-5 degrees on the run up to the puffer? looks like were in for a lot of mud.... NOOO!

cullen-bay - Member
woohoo! 4-5 degrees on the run up to the puffer? looks like were in for a lot of mud.... NOOO!

Mud it is.

Take plenty spare disk pads 🙂

(or get a set of drum brakes)

Never seen Metcheck accurate for the 'Puffer though.

My bet's on wet glass too. Might take my leg armour.

lucky Epicyclo? how would this weather be better than mud? im presuming you managed a sub-2hour ride on your el pompino or something....
sets of pads- check.
spare brakes- nah!
spare bike- nah!
working bike heading into event- nah!
sense- nah!

cullen-bay - Member
lucky Epicyclo? how would this weather be better than mud?

Mud's fine too.

BTW couldn't fit my Snow Studs onto the Pompino with enough clearance at the rear, so that idea is out. Not willing to risk riding it without them.

Anyone riding a Pugsley?

I wouldnt mind a pugsley right now. Only problem would be having to look at it through the rest of the year...
off out to walk the course again, looking forward to the view rock decent, might do it a few times....

Couldn't get my car more than 10 metres past the highway at Contin today....

thats not good. im sure it will be fine on the day.... 😯

When this lot melts it's going to be mental 🙂

EXACTLY! forecast is for 5 degrees the week leading up to the event!!! WOOO!
EDIT: just checked metguess and apparently it will be around -7 to -10 leading up to it... Hah, i love that site. http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/14days.asp?zipcode=IV14

Here are some of my pics from last year.

[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/30973426@N06/sets/72157622326565395/show/ ]Puffer slideshow[/url]

Looking forward to even more dramatic scenery this time round.

After a nice 4 hour walk round today, I don't think anything other than full summer temperature rain and wind for the next fortnight is going to make much of a dent on that snow. It's likely to still go sub zero every night so the best we can hope for is icy slush I reckon. It was mental. I couldn't even ride the descents as the front wheel kept digging in and pitching me over the bars.

Whoever is going round the course on XC skis should keep doing it.

RPRT - those pictures look fantastic.

So, either it's knee deep snow and we're walking (what's the criteria for a "bike"? Can I carry my 2 y.o's bike round 😉 )

OR it thaws and it's MUD. Cold, gritty mud that eats disk pads.

OR it's in the process of thawing and it's a repeat of 2008 - start ice, thaw overnight to provide 24h of the world's slipperiest surface. That was horrible. At least the gales look unlikely.

Last year was perfect. Apart from me breaking my knee at 2AM. Still, I raised £1000 for Sick Kids Hospital.

Say those prayers!

Cheers, al.

I'm hoping for full blown grim. I want it to turn into a war of attrition. 😀

I'm with Goan on this one. Last year was too easy, or rather, "insufficiently challenging". And I, like AK also want to know the minimum kit definition of a 'bike'....

If its currently taking about 4 hours a lap then that's only 1 and a bit laps for a quad team.....great 😆 Does skiing round holding a grip or saddle define a legal lap??

Dismantle bike, strap it all together, attach to camelbak or similar back pack, XC ski round. Bosh!

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[url] http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/12/?p=3 [/url]

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[url= http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/photos/2008/tech/shows/nahmbs08/index.php?id=/photos/2008/tech/shows/nahmbs08/nahmbs084/Moots_snow_bike ]Moots_snow_bike[/url]

Cheers, al.

Yesterday the first one pictured there would have been most effective...

LOL just looked at metguess just now and it shows minus 16C for early hours of Sunday morning - nice!

Pack your goose fat peeps!

With no sign of a thaw over the next 7-10 days the main question should be ,has the puffer finally fallen to the weather?I know people are getting out there and pushing their bikes around.This will only make the course worse if there is a thaw as the compressed snow will turn to ice which will take even longer to clear.Best to keep of the top rocky section and hope nature takes it course

I was planning building something like that Moots last year, but commonsense dictated otherwise - why have a snow bike for a few days a year?

That sound effect is me kicking myself....

Like JoJo I found that even where I could ride, there was always a large hole lurking to swallow my front wheel.

I think if it stays like this we need to send out the heavy riders first - a few hundred of them will soon have the track compacted into nice shiny ice 🙂

hah, it wont be melted, but us locals should have ridden a groove that anyone competent on a bike will be able to ride...

I fully intend to be at the back of the pack allowing all teh young fit keen ones to clear a route for me.

Hi young cullen when you say ride you actually mean walk.Good idea though turn the course sheet ice,lets see how good you are then 😕

Niterider. SHeet ice on the entire course, plus gale force winds didn't prevent people riding the race in 2008. It was just more interesting. AT least ice is more rideable than 2 foot snow drifts.

About 4 times more rideable going on lap times...

Sheet ice on the course means no medics.No medics no race.Unlike 2 years ago the camping is in cotin,no access to campsite no race

Whoever is going round the course on XC skis should keep doing it.

That's one of my friends from work :o)
Shall I ask her to take this week off as well to keep tamping the course down for us?
I'm am kinda hoping for ice as I have a set of these:
http://www.snowbikers.com/nokian-extreme-294.html

more chance of getting into contin campsite than there is the field.....

iirc they used a unimog that year of the ice ...

Two years ago the access to contin was sheet ice and remained so for the weekend.At the last minute the medics got a quad in thus allowing the race to go ahead.The marshells had to walk to their post at the top of fire road.It is access to the campsite that is more likely to scupper the race,becauce if they cant get campervans and the like parked on the fireroad(due to sheet ice) the campsite cant cope with the volume

how about everyone who takes part brings a 25kg bag of sand - that's 400 bags = 10tonnes of sand = nae ice on fire road access? I've got three in the garden, its a start!

FC would have a hairy fit if we did that

All this speculation's killing me. We can't even travel unless we can offload the 4 kids to 2 sets of relatives, and getting them there safely in this weather is a challenge in itself. Then the drive up to Contin. As niterider says, the campers were parked all the way up the 1st climb, perhaps for a mile or so? If that road can't be used then could a nearby field be used? In 2008 we were dead lucky that the farmer was so accommodating - after the marquee blew away (1 metre tent pegs and all), he emptied the barn to let the event organisation in. Then he spent the weekend dragging people's vehicles in and out of the field. I seem to remember a 6 or 7AM meeting to announce whether the race was on. I arrived on Fri evening to be turned away and camped at the shinty pitch with loads of others, where my car promptly sank into the mud. I never moved the tent, and commuted through Strathpeffer to the start line for the duration of the race. The BBC's Dougie Vipond with his physical, dietary, mental, mechanical trainers & support and great big warm camper van on site beat me by 1 lap (very low numbers : my 6, his 7).

Somehow I entered again the next year. Hmm. And again this year.

All we can do is plan to travel and wait.

Cheers, al.

Any 29er riders looking for a set of ice tyres give me a mail, I've got a set of bonty jones with studs in
I would sell.
Been round the puffer course successfully a few times on glassy ice. Not much help when you stray into 400mm deep snow though 🙂

Can meet at Strathpeffer day before the race or whenever suits.

I'm not doing the race this year so don't mind getting rid of them.